No Fireworks
by Charlie Baytes
Summary: "...and now she needs to be sure that she doesn't feel anything for Finn anymore; no fireworks, no spark." How Rachel says goodbye. Is once again a two-shot.
1. How She Says Goodbye

Set during Silly Love Songs. think of it as me saying Goodbye Finchel, and hello Puckleberry.

**_Please read Finchel fans, there is no bashing. I'm a finchel fan, but ive decided to ship Puckleberry majorly_**

**_Disclaimer: I own nothing, RM owns everything, erm yeah!_**

**_Read and review!_**

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She wondered if she had ever really felt anything. Did she ever truly love Finn? Did he ever truly love her? She didn't know, and now, she thinks, maybe she doesn't really wanna know. She knows he's not as over her as he says he is; he won't admit that he misses her. And she's done waiting. She thinks she's found someone else, and now she needs to be sure that she doesn't feel anything for Finn anymore; no fireworks, no spark.

When Finn announces he's setting up a kissing booth, she figures this is the perfect time to finally sort out her confusing feelings. She needs this to be over with, her love for Finn needs to be out of her system. So she walks up to his booth, slams the dollar on the table, and waits for the stupid kiss. He stupidly asks her if she can handle it. _No shit I can handle it._ And then what does the idiot do? He gives her a freaking peck on the cheek.

She is _not_ his grandmother, she deserves better than that!

"What the hell was that?" She furiously asks him.

"I thought you said you could handle it." She can't take his obnoxious attitude any more. So she does something rash.

"Oh shut up." She roughly grabs his face and plants her lips on his. She feels him responding, and she keeps waiting for the fireworks. They never happen. She wants to feel fireworks, she wills herself to feel a spark, but nothing, nothing at all. She releases him, and she waits for him to call her a name.

But he's still recovering from the shock of the kiss; he looks like he just woke up from a deep sleep. She wonders if in a way, she did too. Time to face reality; she doesn't feel anything at all for the goofy quarterback anymore.

It's a good thing too.

"Well Finn, obviously I set my standards higher than I should have. That kiss, it was, boring. I just wasted three minutes of my life."

"What? You kiss me and then say I bore you?" He asks angrily.

She nods.

"God you're mean when you don't have a man in your life." She kinda wants to slap him. She does have a man in her life. She rolls her eyes.

"I do have man in my life, thank you very much." She twiddles her thumbs.

"Who?" He switches the sign from _Open_ to _Closed._

"Don't worry 'bout it." She nonchalantly smirks.

"Well if you have a 'man' in your life, why did you kiss me like that?" He straightens his football jersey.

"To be honest, I wanted to see if I still felt fireworks when I kissed you. I wanted to know if you and I still had that spark. And to be honest we don't. I'm tired of playing second fiddle to Quinn or Santana. I wanna be someone else's number one choice. Oh sure I was ecstatic when you picked me over Quinn, because girls like me hardly ever get picked over girls like her. But I think I found someone else. Someone who still lights up my day. " She makes a weird hand motion, a cross between jazz hands and seizure like hands.

"So you don't feel a spark when you kiss me?" She nods, and plays with the string-bead necklace on her neck; the one with another boy's name. The one that replaced Finn's name.

"Yeah well I didn't either." He looks away. He's lying, she can tell. She knows all of his facial expressions.

"I know." She knows.

"I want Quinn." Translation: I thought I wanted Quinn, no, I want Quinn, maybe. She smiles slightly. "Erm- I kinda wanted to give you something though." He quickly ushers her over to the side. He hands her a rectangular box with Santa wrapping paper on it.

"I-I don't understand?"

"I was going to give it to you for Christmas, but…" He trails off. They both know the story.

She carefully opens the box, and she finds a silver star on a chain necklace. It's beautiful. She knows that if the circumstances were different, she would probably cry right now.

However she does not cry.

She simply picks up the necklace, dangles it from her fingers, and promptly hands it to Finn. He's confused.

"It's for you." He reminds her, as if she doesn't already know.

"I know, and I don't want it. Please don't give it to me. If you give it to me, I might cry, and if I cry, I might want you back, and I don't want you back. So please, don't give it to me. Give it to Barbie, for me." She turns on her heels and scampers to her locker.

Truth is, that necklace was too beautiful, it didn't belong with a girl like her.

As she wanders through her remaining classes, she wonders about the clumsy quarterback.

As she sings a duet with Tina, her eyes wonder to Finn, whose gaze is fixed on her.

But she doesn't feel anything, no fireworks, no spark, no nothing.

Maybe she feels a bit of remorse. Remorse for giving up so easily. But she knows that it isn't worth it. She feels nothing for Finn anymore.

It's a good thing too. She has reservations for two at Breadstixs tonight, and she knows Puck likes to eat early.

But fireworks can be delayed, can't they?

* * *

So the ending can interoperatedin different ways. Puckleberry or Finchel. You choose. Personally I like the ending to be some sort of a mystery. Does Rachel feel fireworks, or does a certain bad-ass now giver her butterflies. You decide.


	2. How She Says Hello

_Orginally this was supposed to be a one-shot, but a couple of you guys told me to update/continue, so i did, here we go part two!_

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**20 minutes earlier**

She sits in the auditorium, her legs dangling off the stage. She's thinking about Finn's stupid kissing booth. She wants to slam down a hundred dollar bill in his face, and kiss the living day lights out of him.

And then a part of her doesn't really care.

Not in the depressed, feel-bad-for-yourself way, but in the fuck-it-I-don't-really-give-a-shit way. Lately, after she finished fantasying about her and Finn's imaginary reunion, her thoughts wandered to another boy, one with a stupid Mohawk. She smiled at the very thought of him. He may have been a self-proclaimed badass, but in reality he was just a goofy boy who had somehow inched his way into Rachel's heart. Ever since her stupid breakup, she and Puck spent a lot of time together. Puck admitted to enjoying her company, while she admitted that she thought he was pretty cool. They had immediately become close friends, doing things together that neither of them were confident enough to do on their own. Puck convinced Rachel to go on a beer run, and she pried until he caved and admitted to liking chick flicks.

They genuinely liked each other, and being with Puck made the Finn-hurt kinda go away. So why did it bother her that Puck sang that song to Lauren. She should be happy for him! Why did it bother her that Santana thought Puck was her man? Why did it bother her that Puck still had sex with tons of other girls, it never bothered her before?

Of course if she was going to be honest with herself, she knows why. But Rachel wasn't ready to be honest.

So she sits here on the auditorium's stage, thinking about her failed relationship with Finn, and her confusing feelings for Puck. She was conflicted.

She heard the auditorium doors open and shut, and she knew who it was just by the sounds of his walk. He took a seat next to her and they both sat in silence.

"So, Finn is setting up a kissing booth should be interesting." He says to her.

"Yeah." She chuckles, "ten bucks he gets mono."

"You're on." They laugh together before the silence returns.

"I heard from Santana that Quinn's fooling around with someone."

"Oh yeah, who?" She has a feeling she knows who.

"Finn." He says quietly, almost like he wishes it wasn't true for her sake.

She nods knowingly. Who was she kidding? Quinn had Finn's heart, kinda.

"I'm sorry." He offers genuinely.

"Why? I'm not surprised, I'm a little hurt, no, I'm a lot of hurt, but whatever." She bites her thumb. "You know, I don't really think I ever loved him."

"Figure all that on your own, did ya?" He asks playfully.

Rachel smacks his shoulder. "I realized something."

"Huh?"

"It took awhile, but what I've found is that Finn was never that great of a boyfriend to me."

"Nope." Puck agrees.

"He was a far better boyfriend to Quinn."

"Yup."

"Did you know I kinda hate Quinn?"

"She's the worst. Did you know she was abusive?"

"No." Rachel gasps mockingly.

"Yup."

"Aww, poor Puckerman.

"I know." He swings his left foot, and then his right. Silence resumes.

"I'm having mixed emotions over the whole Finn ordeal."

"Really, what kind?"

"I'm not sure if I'm over him or not. That's why I'm going to pay a dollar at his stupid kissing booth, to figure this all out." She brings her knees up to her chin.

Puck wonders if she knows how beautiful she is.

"You're going to kiss him?"

"Yeah, it's the only way to know if there's still a spark."

"Interesting."

"It hurts to think that the whole time I was with Finn, he may have been thinking of Quinn. But who could blame him, she's gorgeous."

"Are you kidding me, she's hot, but…"

"Thanks." Rachel interrupts.

"You didn't let me finish. She's hot, but you're, you're beautiful, inside and out. Quinn, she's intentionally a bitch. You may be annoying, but you're not intentionally mean."

She rests her head on her knee. "You think I'm beautiful?"

"Of course. Rachel, I-I love you." Puck doesn't regret saying it; it's two months over-due. "And it might freak you out, but I can't help it, I'm head-over-heels in love with you. I don't know when it started, but somewhere along the way you not only became my best friend, but someone who I care deeply about.

"Puck," He waits anxiously, "you don't understand how long I've waited to hear you say that." She promptly concludes the moment by capturing his lips with her own. He tastes like watermelon, and she can't get enough of it. She wonders if she tastes like berry.

They both gasp for air, but neither of them pulls away completely. Instead they touch foreheads and smile at each other. Puck has never seen prettier eyes.

"I got you something." He whispers.

"You did?"

"Yeah, but don't get to excited." She can tell he's anxious to give it to her.

He reaches into his Levi's pocket and pulls out a necklace. It's a pink yarn necklace, the kind first graders use to make mother's day necklaces. On it is four white beads with black lettering; they spell P-U-C-K.

"Its kinda tacky, but I wanted to make you something special." He looks at her hopefully. He's right, it's terribly tacky, but it's perfect. Perfect for her. She knows that he would never in a million years do this for just some random girl, she must be pretty special.

"I don't really do arts and crafts but…" he trails off.

"It's the best gift I've ever gotten."

"Really?" He looks so happy.

"Yeah, it is. Here help me tie it on my neck." So he does. And when it's on her neck, she can't help but feel complete.

"Hey I was wondering if you wanted to go to Breadstix's tonight." She asks him.

"Sure, but make the reservations for six, papa Puck likes to eat early." He pats his stomach. She chuckles.

"Hey I gotta go; it's Jew-fro throwing time. But I'll see you later." He jumps off the stage and walks to the door. But not before he turns back, "Oh and by the way, make sure to tell me if you felt the fireworks when you kiss Hudson later on." He gives her a smirk.

"You still want me to do that?"

"Hells yeah, Hudson's got nothing on me! See ya later Berry pop." He walks out of the auditorium leaving Rachel in a Puck induced haze. She stares off into space for awhile longer while she clacks her heels together.

She looks down at her necklace and decides it represents her relationship with Puck; easy and beautiful.


End file.
